CM Storm, of the Cooler Master Group, comes full circle by introducing its new line of sleek fully mechanical keyboards. A full complement of very durable and high quality CM Storm peripherals can now be had with the introduction of the QuickFire Rapid Mechanical Gaming Keyboard.

Effortlessly melt into the smooth and clean aesthetic of the QuickFire Rapid via its laser-marked keycaps and its smooth, yet damage-resistant, rubber coating. This is complemented by a set of extra keycaps (includes a key puller) that give the keyboard an extra appeal that draws other gamers in. A response time of 1ms, in USB mode, offers gamers a necessary consistency to navigate the ever changing landscapes of their video game libraries. With the Windows Key being disabled in GAME mode, users will no longer worry about possibly losing a match from accidentally minimizing the game. Multimedia shortcuts are available to ensure that media can be controlled with ease. With N Key Rollover, users deploying the QuickFire Rapid in PS/2 mode can activate many keys on the keyboard at once with all of them registering.

High-grade Cherry MX Switches
CM Storm aims to offer the best available mechanical hardware by integrating Cherry MX switches. These provide the QuickFire Rapid with the ability to respond to, and recover from, furious button presses with almost zero lag. Vastly improve your possible gaming actions per minute by utilizing a QuickFire Rapid Mechanical Gaming Keyboard in FPS, MMO, RTS, and other games. Cherry MX Black, Brown, or Blue switches will be available based on region.

Hassle-free Travel and Cable Management
Travel without a care in the world by simply removing the included braided USB cable and storing it. While attached, the braided USB cable can be routed through cable management grooves in the back of the QuickFire Rapid. This prevents unsightly cable clutter and helps minimize risk due to a hanging cable catching a foot or leg from a loved one.

Price and Availability
The QuickFire Rapid carries a MSRP of $79.99. It will be available November 2011 at retailers and online locations that sell your favorite Cooler Master, CM Storm, and Choiix gear.

Apart from the "Quick Fire!" and overuse of their little flame symbol, it looks nice enough. Odd that they label cherry blues as having "low resistance" and cherry browns as having "medium resistance" when blues have the higher actuation force though...

I will be getting the black switch version. I had a steelseries with black switches and I loved it. I was stupid enough to sell it, for some good profit though. This one has a good price and I wanted a ten key less mechanical keyboard since forever...

Nice price. But do not like the typeface of the keys, or the space-bar advertising. Really naff.

And really, a gamer doesn't need red arrow keys for asdw! Next thing, a mouse with arrow directions on it! If they want to help the gamer, then perhaps 5 or 6 transparent keycaps where you could print your own text and stick it underneath. Like "TPU" (shortcut) or "the bomb!" etc. This would be esp. useful for f1-12 keys.

The old BBC micro from 1983 had a plastic strip above the fn keys where you could slip a strip of paper underneath with your own (or pre-determined depending on software) function key definitions.

like this

Now how hard would it be to improve that concept that is already 30 years old? (Without spending a double fortune on those OLED programmable keys, which are great but just too expensive)

I had been looking around for a mechanical keyboard with no numpad and then I see this. The "Quick Fire" label is a bit strange, but I can overlook that since this keyboard meets my usability requirements.

Same old... same old...
People moaning about
1. No backlighting
2. Price
3. Tenkeyless
4. No macro keys
AND THEY FORGET ITS A MECHANICAL KEYBOARD.

You dont want tenkeyless go buy another board, some people prefer tenkeyless as its a space saver and lots of people do not use the num pad.

What normal layout? this is ANSI layout.
I like the look of this board, its plain and looks well built; whether or not it is well built depends on a lot of factors so id love to read a review. I also like the choice of switches. This board reminds me of the Filco keyboards in a lot of respects, even its design is similar.

$80 means this will be about £80 in the UK, us UK'ers shafted as usual.

EDIT: Oh look some Fn Function keys, media keys to be precise oh and every gamer targeted board should have the ability to turn off the windows keys THANK YOU.

No reason why they shouldn't offer the numpad, or at least an attachment for those who want one. There are enough mechanical keyboards out there which offer numpad, and I don't see why they shouldn't offer one unless its a cost cutting measure, in which case I would gladly pay an extra £20 to get a mechanical keyboard with numpad.

I'm happy to finally see keyboards coming without the num pad! I like to keep the mouse close to the keyboard so I'm not awkwardly reaching way off to the side to use the mouse and the absence of a num pad saves those precious extra inches. Tenkeyless FTW!

It is too bad they had to ruin a clean layout with that lame "Quick Fire" on the space bar.

I hope its not just me, but the font on the keys is awesome! mechanical too nice

Click to expand...

Not just you, I thing the font looks great too. Smooth and easy to read.

Looks like we're split right down the middle on the num pad (I personally require it). This might indicate to CM that offering an alternative model with the num pad would would be a good idea. I also think a backlit version would be a good idea; finding a mechanical keyboard that is backlit is hard enough that there should be room for a new model.

Props for the decent price. It's great to see more mechanical keyboards coming out and hopefully competition will bring their prices down a bit. I wouldn't ask for them to be under $75 but my $170 Deck is a bit much (though I wouldn't trade it for anything).